Corporate App Stores: Harness The Power Of BYOD

Sumir Karayi is CEO of 1e, which provides enterprise IT efficiency tools.

Sumir Karayi

It would be the understatement of the century to say that technology has changed the way we do business. It also goes without saying that the employee of today is far more technologically savvy and mobile than he or she was as little as five years ago. Today’s worker is perpetually armed with their handheld device, or devices, of choice and while it used to be the norm to possess both a device for personal use and one for professional use, expectations are shifting rapidly. Employees no longer want mandated smartphones; they want to use their own devices. The new generation of “iWorker” expects to be able to get their work done with devices they choose to use.

Rather than fight a losing battle, smart organizations need to work with, not against, the Bring Your Own Device aspect of the “consumerization” of IT and the rise of the “social enterprise”. After all, the social enterprise, if nurtured correctly, breeds a culture of collaboration and communication. Allowing employees to work to their best ability with the tools that suit their working practices is critical to the nurturing process. Also critical, is making it possible for workers to be able to use those devices outside of the confines of strict limitations. One very effective way to do this is through the freedom and efficiency provided by the corporate app store.

Why a Corporate App Store?

It may seem like a new problem, but in fact it is a long-standing issue. In 2010, 1E commissioned independent research that revealed that two thirds of users in the United States wait up to a week or more to get the software they request through their IT help desk and a whopping 73 percent have to chase the helpdesk to get the apps they need. Alarmingly, 4 percent never get the software they requested in the first place and only 7 percent are able to get the software in under an hour. How can an organization reap the benefits of BYOD and the social enterprise when its employees can’t easily access the software they need? This issue can be solved by establishing a corporate app store.

A corporate app store is like the iTunes store for enterprise software. It allows workers to download software applications as and when needed. Corporate app stores give employees the freedom to select the applications they need within minutes, without the typical helpdesk intervention. As an added and significant bonus, this also brings major IT helpdesk cost and time reductions. With 12 percent of IT helpdesk ticket requests being for new software, a corporate app store could save more than $8.6 billion a year in IT helpdesk costs

Harness the Potential of BYOD

Companies can empower their iWorkers to easily access the tools they need to be productive with the help of the corporate app store. Allowing employees to request software via their mobile devices allows them to fully benefit from the BYOD-friendly policies of their employer. To ensure their corporate app stores support their BYOD policies, organizations should keep the following in mind:

Considering the fact that many workers typically work on a tablet or check corporate email on a smartphone, a corporate app store should also enable those responsible for approving software requests to approve or reject these requests from their mobile devices. This helps to ensure that the speed of request fulfillment keeps up with the speed of requests made.

Corporate app store Web-pages need to work in cross-platform browsers such as Firefox, Chrome and Safari to allow actions to be carried out with the existing Web interface on a mobile device.

Remote access to corporate app stores should be granted to enable access for mobile devices that do not sit on the corporate LAN.

Because they have access to their providers’ app stores, more often than not, workers will use their corporate app store to make requests for their mobile devices that are related to “accounts,” “access,” and ”privileges.” For example, a provider can have iOS, Android and Blackberry apps, all of which are available cost-free on the respective app stores. However, the apps are all useless without a registered account with that provider, which the enterprise would need to pay for and provision. The corporate app store should be able to handle enabling the request, approval and account provisioning via a mobile device.

There’s no denying that the consumerization of IT has dramatically changed our concept of work and will continue to do so as it evolves. The BYOD movement, despite the security concerns it raises, is a protagonist in a company’s journey to becoming a social enterprise. Businesses that embrace BYOD and facilitate employee use of personal handheld devices through programs like a corporate app store, will find that they have a happier, collaborative and more productive workforce.

Post Your Comment

Post Your Reply

Forbes writers have the ability to call out member comments they find particularly interesting. Called-out comments are highlighted across the Forbes network. You'll be notified if your comment is called out.